840.4016/8–1445: Telegram

The American Representative in Hungary ( Schoenfeld ) to the Secretary of State

423. Prime Minister last night confirmed some information reported in my telegram 414 Aug 13 [11] adding Government had decided yesterday to inform Soviet member Allied Control Commission is ready to proceed with preparations for concentration of German minority here who voluntarily identified themselves with Nazis amounting to some 300,000 but would insist that remaining 100,000 [Page 1269] be treated on individual merits and not collectively.74 Government had not received official notice of Potsdam Declaration regarding expulsion of Germans with which Soviet demand for immediate concentration of all Germans in this country regardless of their individual attitude and of economic effect of such action seemed to be at variance. Moreover Hungarian Government was very conscious that indiscriminate treatment of Germans in this country would be undesirable precedent for analogous action against Hungarian minority in neighboring countries especially Czechoslovakia.

Repeated to USPolAd75 Frankfort as No. 13.

Schoenfeld
  1. In telegram 420, August 13, 6 p.m., the Representative in Hungary reported having been informed by a Hungarian Government official that it was estimated that over 300,000 Germans previously in Hungary had declared themselves of German nationality and that another 100,000 though declaring German to be their mother tongue had described themselves as of Hungarian nationality and in many cases had rendered patriotic service against Nazi forces (840.4016/8–1345).
  2. United States Political Adviser for Germany, Robert D. Murphy.